Crucifixion - 02 by Dirk Patton Read Free Book Online Page B

stay right where I was, curled in the fetal position and
feeling sorry for myself.
    “Stacy!  What’s wrong?” 
    It was the tone in Gwen’s voice that made the small hairs on
my arms stand up.  Shoving the pain aside I sat up and looked around to where
the two girls had been huddling at the back of the helicopter.  Gwen was
kneeling over her sister who was laying on the deck and convulsing violently. 
Mayo and I both moved at the same time.  I pushed Gwen aside as Mayo grabbed a
first aid kit that was mounted to a bulkhead, ripped it open and kneeled next
to me with a Syrette of Morphine.  I was cradling Stacy’s head in my lap to
keep her from fracturing her skull on the hard deck and trying to restrain her
just enough to prevent injury when she suddenly let out with an ear piercing
scream before going perfectly still, staring up into my eyes.
    “What’s wrong with her?  Help her?”  Gwen screamed and tried
to push in to reach her sister, but I held her back.  Mayo had the Morphine
Syrette poised in mid-air, looking to me for instructions.  That was when it
happened.
    Stacy’s eyes bulged nearly out of their sockets, for all the
world looking like a cartoon character who’s eyes pop out of their head in
exaggerated surprise.  When I thought they could grow no larger the whites were
flooded with red as every capillary in her eyes burst, then they receded back
to their normal position.
    “Back!”  I shouted, scrambling away and letting Stacy’s head
fall to the deck. 
     Mayo and I put as much distance between us and Stacy as we
could and I cast around looking for the Kukri I had dropped on the deck when I
made it into the helicopter.  Spotting it a few feet away I dove for it as
Stacy leapt to her feet with a scream, looked around and launched herself at
Mayo.  I’ll never know why she ignored Gwen who was right next to her.  Perhaps
even infected she recognized her sister, or more likely Mayo was just the first
person she saw, but she tackled him to the deck.  They rolled over twice
getting tangled in his safety tether which effectively tied their legs together.
 He wound up on his back trying to hold her snapping teeth away from his
flesh.  Kukri in hand I stepped behind Stacy, grabbed a fistful of hair, yanked
to raise her head and swung the machete. 
    “Nooooooo!” 
    Gwen’s scream of agony was loud even over the roar of the
Pave Hawk as her sister’s head was sliced from her body and started swinging by
the hair balled into my fist, bright red blood pouring out of the cut and covering
the deck.  I hadn’t intended to behead the poor girl, my only thought being to
save Mayo.  Shit.  I looked around the bloody compartment.  Mayo stared at me
from the deck, covered in blood with a shocked look on his face.  Gwen stared
at me from the rear of the compartment.  More accurately she stared at her
little sister’s head that was still swinging in my fist from the motion of the
helicopter.  A low moan came from her, rising in pitch to become a keening wail
as she sank to her knees and buried her face in her hands.
    I stood there for a long moment, head swinging from my hand and
blood dripping onto the deck.  Mayo was still frozen in place, breathing hard. 
Gwen had rolled onto her side, her whole body shaking as she sobbed.  Not
knowing what else to do I tossed the severed head out of the open door then
kneeled down to help Mayo untangle from the tether that held the body pressed
on top of him.  Freeing him I lifted Stacy’s body and it followed her head
through the open door.  I watched it pinwheel through the air as it fell until
it disappeared in the thick forest several hundred feet below us.
    Mayo retrieved the headset that had been knocked off in the
scuffle and I could see him talking into it, filling in Anderson up in the
cockpit.  The noise of the helicopter in flight was too loud for me to hear
what he was saying, but I had my own concerns.  What the hell had just